Let’s restrict the franchise like it’s 1799

In this clip, Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla) discusses one “radical idea” he has about needing “to be a property owner to vote.” Nice.Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz has said that these comments aren’t “just from a different decade, they harken back to another century when Americans were denied their basic rights as citizens,” and that “Yoho’s view is abhorrent and immoral and should be roundly condemned in the strongest possible terms.”In a ridiculous attempt to back peddle, Yoho’s staff said that he was only making an “historical reference,” and “in no way was the congressman advocating for reverting back to a system where only landowners could vote.”Well, no. Any reasonable person seeing the video would draw the conclusion that he personally embraced the “radical idea” that only property owners should have the franchise.More to the point, as the DNC argues, Yoho’s general premise is shared by today’s Republican Party that too many people, the wrong kind of people, get to participate in the electoral process, and something should be done about that.They are not kidding when they harken back to the Founding Fathers.